Moorings

Just to prove that there was some sunshine in the Isle of Wight today, this is a shot of moorings in Yarmouth I took during a walk before breakfast. It clouded over soon after and when the yacht racing started the sun had gone. By the afternoon it was ark weather. So, while I had one or two nice spinnaker shots, I was drawn back to the colour of these mooring buoys and what looked like yellow builders' buckets protecting the propellors of the motor boats.

The Olympics are coming up fast and sailing is going to be a tough sport to cover as a journalist since it's very technical. Olympic gold medalist Jochen Schumann once described it as "three-dimensional chess." Neither does it have the profile of other sports. Although the UK has several reigning Olympic champions in sailing, most people have only heard of Ben Ainslie. So that's something I have to think about. But, with rowing and cycling, it's likely to be one of our top medal events.

I'm at the Panerai Classic Yachts Regatta off Cowes this week but since Panerai is a watchmaker there is as much talk of watches as yachts. Some people (mostly blokes, not me) seem to get very emotional about watches and it's not unknown for grown men to take off their watches and lay them down for what they call a "table shot". Mmm, think I'll stick to boats. Dinner at the Royal Yacht Squadron tonight, better scrub up a bit.